Taiwan president to donate salary for Ukraine relief efforts

War in Ukraine has generated widespread sympathy in Taiwan amid tensions with neighboring China.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has announced that she, Vice President William Lai, and Premier Su Tseng-chang will each donate one month’s salary to aid humanitarian relief efforts for Ukraine as it seeks to repel an invasion by Russia.

The war has generated widespread sympathy in Taiwan for Ukraine’s people due to the threat the island says it faces daily from its much bigger neighbor China. Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up its military pressure to assert those claims.

Tsai, whose government this week send its first batch of aid in the form of 27 tonnes of medical supplies, on Wednesday told a meeting of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party that the determination of Ukraine’s people has moved the world and Taiwan’s people.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.

The forces of global democracy supporting Ukraine are growing stronger, Tsai said.

“As a member of the global partners of democracy, Taiwan is not absent, and we fully support Ukraine.”

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